Cuba

Workshop Details

Ten days Cuba Photo Workshop 2026 

Join me on an extraordinary photographic journey to Cuba—a land I’ve come to know like few others.

My connection with the island began in 1989, when I first traveled to Cuba in search of long-lost relatives separated since 1953. At a time when few U.S. citizens—especially photographers—were permitted to enter the country.  I found myself one of the only outsiders with a camera. In many of the places I visited, I was not just the only photographer, but often the first foreigner people had ever met. 

That changed in 1998, when Pope John Paul II made his historic visit, becoming the first pontiff to travel to Cuba and opening the door to a slow but steady shift in access and visibility.

In 1995, I held my first solo exhibition of Cuban photography, and that same year was honored with a Virginia Commission for the Arts fellowship grant. Reflecting on my work, Frank Van Riper of The Washington Post wrote:

“Manuello Paganelli's Cuban photographs are a brilliant window on a land and people too long hidden from North American eyes. Working in the tradition of Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, Paganelli brings an artist's eye and a native son's sensibility to his superb photographs.”

That early body of work opened doors. Editors from major magazines and newspapers began assigning me to cover Cuba, sending me back again and again. As my photographs started appearing in national publications and photo industry journals, they offered many Americans their first real glimpse of Cuban life since 1959.

In 2015, after more than sixty trips to the island, I published my monograph Cuba: A Personal Journey 1989–2016—a visual memoir of a changing nation through nearly three decades of exploration, trust-building, and storytelling.

This workshop it's an invitation to see Cuba with the eyes of someone who has walked its streets, shared meals with its people, and documented its soul for over 30 years.

Some of my favorites of great travel or fiction books to read regarding Cuba. 

1.The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I can ad here that I had the great honor of meeting Gregorio Fuentes way back in 1990 or so who was the character which Hemingway based his main character on.

2.  Insight Guide Cuba APA Houghton Mifflin Company 

3. Our Man in Havana by Graham Green

4. The Reader’s Companion to Cuba by Alan Ryan 

5. The Che Handbook by Hilda Barrio & Gareth Jenkins

6. The Wise Women of Havana by Jose Raul Bernardo

7. Cuba by Walker Evans

Included:

Workshop Itinerary

Cuba A Personal Journey Through the Lens

Day 1-4  Havana

. Arrive at Havana Jose Marti Airport  then head for our Casa Particulares, or Cuban homes, like a B&B,  where you can really experience a closeness to the island and its people by staying with an authentic Cuban Family.  Any students arriving from Europe or other places should arrive to Cuba a couple days before to minimize the effects of the jetlag.

. Late afternoon photography around el Malecon. 

. Welcome dinner at a favorite restaurant

Day 2 Havana

. Breafast at hotel then early outing to old Havana to capture the morning light and the vibrance of the waking city and its people. 

. A visit to La Fototeca, Havana Museum of Photography

• Visit El Cristo, The Christ, while taking a boat across the bay.
• Visit Vedado’s bustling Agriculture Market

Day 3 Havana

. Early morning trip to Cojimar where Hemingway used to have his boat the Pilar and to meet and photograph fishermen. This small village was the home of Gregorio Fuentes who was Hemingway’s captain and his model for the Old Man and the Sea

Day 4 Visit Finca Vigia & Trejo Boxing Ring

Day 5-8 Pinar del Rio and Viñales

Viñales is a natural beautiful canvas dramatically situated in a deep and wide fertile and farming valley hugged by large isolated steep-sided mountain or mogotes making this region probably the most picturesque  in Cuba. 

• Visit a Tobacco field and talk to the farmers and owners 
• Visit the Tobacco Factory in Pinar del Rio.
• Walk around the old town

Day 8- Return to Havana

• Visit one of the Synagogue in Havana and talk and photograph some of its members. 
• Walk around old the train station and Old.
• Visit the Mercado Cuatro Caminos a bustling market

Day 9-Havana Editing Session & Group Review + Farewell Dinner 

• Visit Chinatown
• Visit a dance company and take photos of the dancers
•  

Day 10-Havana to Miami

Depending on Airport time , we can repeat favorite spots or some that were skipped due to lack of time.

If you wish to stay longer you are welcome to do so on your own.  Note: I can also arrange for the students to stay at Casa Particulares or Cuban homes, like a B&B,  where you can really experience a closeness to the island and its people by staying with an authentic Cuban Family.  You can also bring a companion, a partner, family member or friend  who will not be joining the workshop and their breakfast and at their own accommodation is at their own cost. If that is the case there will be a $1,000 extra fees